PARIS (Reporters sans frontières/Pacific Media Watch): The 2014 Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index spotlights major declines in media freedom in such varied countries as the United States, Central African Republic and Guatemala and, on the other hand, marked improvements in Ecuador, Bolivia and South Africa.
The same trio of Finland, Netherlands and Norway heads the index again, while Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea continue to be the biggest information black holes, again occupying the last three positions.
New Zealand was 9th and Australia 28th. The highest placed Pacific Islands country was Samoa, ranked 40th, closely followed by Papua New Guinea at 44.
Other countries surveyed in the Pacific region were Tonga (63), Timor-Leste (77) and Fiji (107).
“The World Press Freedom Index is a reference tool that is based on seven criteria: the level of abuses, the extent of pluralism, media independence, the environment and self-censorship, the legislative framework, transparency and infrastructure,” said Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Christophe Deloire.
“It makes governments face their responsibilities by providing civil society with an objective measure, and provides international bodies with a good governance indicator to guide their decisions.”
Reporters Without Borders head of research Lucie Morillon said: “This year, the ranking of some countries, including democracies, has been impacted by an overly broad and abusive interpretation of the concept of national security protection.
“The index also reflects the negative impact of armed conflicts on freedom of information and its actors.
"The world’s most dangerous country for journalists, Syria, is ranked 177th out of 180 countries.”
The index’s annual global indicator, which measures the overall level of violations of freedom of information in 180 countries year by year, has risen slightly. The indicator has gone from 3395 to 3456 points, a 1.8 percent rise.
The level of violations is unchanged in the Asia-Pacific region, but has increased in Africa.
The index is available in print for the first time. An enhanced version is being published (in French) by the French publishing house Flammarion in its Librio collection. The index, together with regional and thematic analyses, continues to be available in English, French and other languages on the Reporters Without Borders website (rsf.org).
Reporters Without Borders has also introduced a three-dimensional visualisation of the performances of the 180 ranked countries.
This year’s index covers 180 countries, one more than the 179 countries covered in last year’s index. The newcomer is Belize, which has been ranked in the enviable position of 29th.
Full 2014 RSF World Press Freedom Index report
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